1. Technical Field
This invention relates in general to the field of safety devices, and more particularly, but not by way of limitation, to systems and methods for providing advanced warning and risk evasion when hazardous conditions exist.
2. Background
Devices for increasing the safety of drivers are well known and widely available. For example, signs physically placed by highway road crews to warn of an upcoming hazard or construction site have been used to alert drivers to adjust their speed to the posted limit to accommodate the upcoming road hazard or construction. One drawback of such signs is that if not properly placed or lighted, such signs may be missed by drivers. Another drawback to such signs is that since signs must be physically placed into position by appropriate personnel they often cannot be used to warn drivers of transient conditions, such as a street sweeper or paint striper truck moving slowly down a roadway. Radars transmitting in the X, K, or Ka bands have been used by law enforcement agencies to enforce speed limits for some time. Many drivers employ radar detectors which alert the driver when the vehicle is being radiated by such police radar. In response to the alert, the driver can verify his compliance with the speed limit or adjust vehicle speed to be within the posted limit.
Some highways employ radio broadcasts to alert drivers to upcoming hazards. However, radio broadcast warning systems are of limited value because these systems require the driver to tune the radio receiver to a designated AM or FM band frequency, not already assigned to another broadcaster.
Warning systems to prevent collisions between vehicles or pedestrians and trains have been used for decades. They are found in many forms. The most commonly known is a crossing gate with audible and visible warning signals. Separate from the railroad intersection warning systems is a sound blast emanating from the train itself. The sound generated by the train blast warning, can be heard, often very loudly, outside of the danger zone. These horn blasts, however, cause undue noise pollution, disturbing those living within audible range of the intersection. While attempts have been made to address the noise pollution issue, these devices continue to disrupt an unnecessarily large area surrounding an intersection. One such solution attempts to calculate the speed of an oncoming hazard in order to better time the warning signal. One prior art solution employed a triggering mechanism, speed/distance calculating and sound emission software, and an acoustic beam emitter. Such solution calculated the speed of an oncoming train in relation to a particular railway crossing. Based upon the speed of the train, the software will calculate the timing and, if needed, the type of warning blast to be emitted from the acoustic beam emitter. The acoustic beam emitter then generates a focused beam of sound in the direction of the warning zone. Due to the unique characteristics of the acoustic beam emitter, only those within the warning zone will hear the warning blast.
In the conventional systems described above, it is not practical to use signs or radio broadcast messages to alert drivers of an approaching emergency vehicle. Thus, a more reliable system to alert drivers of such hazards and conditions without distracting the driver is desirable to improve safety. No system presently exists that can predict an accident before it happens and coupled to a countermeasure to an imminent threat to provide sufficient warning in a high percentage of accident scenarios.